IT IS A WEEKDAY, BUT THE FOREST department’s range office in Lateri, a town in Madhya Pradesh’s Vidisha district, bears a deserted look. Almost 20 days after the department’s staff were booked for murder over the death of a youth, things seem to have changed forever. In a mix of low morale and fear—both of the government whose forests they are to protect, and members of the Bhil tribal community to which the deceased youth belonged—the staff members at the range have stopped wearing their uniforms. They have also surrendered their official guns, refusing to carry them until the government guarantees them some legal protection.
Lateri is one of the biggest timber smuggling hotspots in MP. Vidisha district, which was in pre-Independence times part of Scindia territory, had some of the best, predominantly teak, forests in the state. Not anymore. Rampant felling, fuelled by greed and demand for timber in and outside the state, has decimated the forests over the years. Clearly driven by political motives, both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress don’t seem to be pressing for strong action against timber smugglers—rather, they are baying for the blood of the agencies entrusted to protect the forests.
On August 9, around 9 pm, Lateri South Range Officer (RO) Vinod Singh received a tip-off about timber smugglers being active in Khattyapura village,
